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#5 From a partisan commentary in the NYTimes today (edited):The reason for this is clear: making democracy efficient takes second place in the United States to the cherished notion of letting local officials run the election system. In this hyperdecentralized system, in the words of Richard Hasen, a voting expert at the University of California, Irvine, the process of voting is left in the hands of volunteers or poorly paid workers, many of whom lack adequate training or formal expertise.

Their supervisors are partisans, often making decisions about spending money on new machines or expanding the system on the basis of how it will affect their party.

In some parts of the US, a police presence is regarded as indicating the "rule of law" is in effect. In other parts, a police presence means "might makes right."

Otherwise known as the United States. The federal gummint is supposed to be limited; the Constitution gives the states responsibility for most things, and the feds are supposed to be restricted to the few things a central government can do best, such as foreign policy and regulating interstate commerce. (See "enumerated powers.")